Blueberry Cake

Sometimes the best ideas come from happy accidents. I had set out to make blueberry sauce for the boys’ pancakes, instead this purple, berry-stuffed cake materialized. I’d been testing a recipe for the perfect white cake, which I am always on the hunt for. (I think, in my humble opinion, I have the world’s best Devil’s Food Cake, but a simple white cake is still out there to be created.) Whenever I get a new baking book I make the white cake to see if the author nailed it. It has to be moist, but not dense and has to taste like warm vanilla. The cake I was testing that morning is from Vintage Cakes. I won’t stop looking for the perfect cake, but this one is pretty close. The boys never did get pancakes that morning, but they did get to eat purple cake for breakfast. They were thrilled.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 8-inch cake pans and line with buttered parchment.

Whisk the flours, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

In a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed for about 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl. On low-speed slowly add the oil and vanilla until combined. Mix in the yolks and whole eggs one at a time, scrape down the bowl after each. Add the flour in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour.

In a separate bowl whip the heavy cream to medium peaks. Fold the cream into the cake batter. Divide the batter equally into the cake pans.

Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Allow to cool on a rack.

To make the blueberry sauce:

In a sauce pot add the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch and zest. Cook over medium heat until the sauce is bubbling and the cornstarch thickens and turns translucent. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. This can be made a few days ahead, covered and refrigerated. Bring the sauce back to room temperature when adding to the icing.

To make the icing:

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and salt, mix on low-speed until incorporated. Turn up the speed and mix until smooth.

Add 1/2 cup of the room temperature blueberry sauce to the icing and combine.

Add 1/2 cup more blueberry sauce and combine.

To assemble the cake:

Slice each of the cakes in two layers. Spread about 1/2 cup of icing over the first layer and slightly build up the edges, which will hold in the blueberry sauce.

Spread about 1/3 cup of the blueberry sauce over the icing, but not all the way to the edge. Repeat with two more layers, then finish with the fourth layer of cake.

Spread the remaining icing over the outside of the cake. It will never be perfectly smooth do to the blueberries.

I agree 100% that you DO have the best Devil’s Food Cake – Ever! (As do my friends who’ve eaten all the cupcakes I’ve baked using your recipe, LOL!). Thanks again for that (and many other) great recipes, Zoe. :^)

We just got an email from our local upick blueberry place saying they have no berries because of the harsh winter. So I’ll either have to break down and buy store berries, or wait another year. Either way, I’ll likely make it w Fannie Farmer’s basic master yellow cake, replacing the vanilla with halt the quantity if almond extract and adding a pinch of ginger. It’s the best light colored cake I’ve ever made (not that I’ve made many… Chocolate is the usual request in my household!

So, have you EATEN the world’s best white cake ever? For me, it is only an elusive dream, which reality cannot touch. Why does white cake never have that rich, moist deliciousness that the devil’s food consistently has? I wish I could say had I ever eaten a white cake that came even close to what you describe. They are all flat in flavor, dry, and lackluster. The devils food is foolproof.

Your cake is beautiful! I was inspired to make it for my daughter’s 4th birthday. The purple color was perfect for her. However, it was a disaster for me from start to finish…twice. I’ve never had a more difficult time baking. Both batches of cakes fell dramatically in the center, so much so that I couldn’t cut them in half. The cake tasted amazing but looked pretty sad, as it was missing the middle. The blueberry sauce was good, but curdled the frosting as soon as I added it, both at room temperature. I’m hoping I can pull it together enough for her birthday dinner tonight. Luckily, she’s not picky about how it looks. I’m sure she’ll love the taste. 🙂

Hello! I found this recipe through Pinterest. I wanted to make a cake for my fiancé for his 28th birthday, and asked him what flavor he wanted (I’ve made layered cakes in the past, but they’ve always been from boxed cake mix). Of course, he tells me “blueberry”. I’m thinking… How can I pull off a blueberry cake?! Then I found your recipe! This is the first “from scratch” cake I have made and it seems to have turned out well. We haven’t eaten it yet… It’s for tomorrow! Here is a photo: http://i61.tinypic.com/2442sjp.jpg Thanks for the recipe!

Oh, that’s always so disappointing. Did you make any substitutions? A different flour or any other changes can do this. Oven temperature is sometimes a culprit. Do you use an oven thermometer? Over mixing can also be an issue. Give me some more details and maybe we can figure it out.

I made this cake for my daughter’s birthday and it was amazing! Super moist! I’d like to make it again, but I have a few issues…(maybe you can help): First, I felt like I had way too much blueberry sauce and I didn’t want it to go to waste so I really layered it in between the layers of cake. Second, I don’t feel like I had made enough frosting, I had a hard time stretching it to cover the entire cake. Third, when I added to room temp blueberry sauce to the frosting it actually separated the frosting (looked terrible, tasted yummy!), so I actually quickly whipped up another batch of just vanilla buttercream to spread on the cake. Any suggestions?

If you feel like the cake has too much of the blueberry filling, then I would save some of it and serve it on the side or with pancakes at breakfast. It is always best to make too much frosting. Have you watched any of my cake icing videos? I always suggest using more. So, you may want to make 1 1/2 times the recipe if you don’t feel there is enough. Add the blueberry sauce 1 tablespoon at a time if it looks like it is separating. Mix each addition in well before adding any more. If it seems like it is getting thin or going to separate, then stop adding more.

When you baked the cake did it fill the pan? If you still have room in your pan, you can make a 1 1/2 batch to get a thicker layer. I am just afraid it will be too much batter for regular pans. If you are interested in thicker layers, then 8×3-inch cake pans are a great way to go.

It will be wonderful, but take into consideration that blackberries can have tons of small seeds. If so, you may want to puree the portion of the filling you will use for the icing and strain it before adding it to the buttercream. If it ends up being too liquid, you can heat the pureed/strained fruit and add a bit more starch to thicken it a bit before making the buttercream.

If your berries don’t have as many seeds as I am assuming, then just swap them for the blueberries.

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Welcome to Zoë Bakes

I'm Zoë François and I love to bake. This is where I play with sugar and take the mystery out of baking everything from cookies to wedding cakes. I studied pastry at the CIA, worked in restaurants, write cookbooks and now you can also find my creations on the Cooking Channel, Fine Cooking Magazine, General Mills, Cooking Club Magazine and Breadin5.com. More...